The Perfect Family
by Faulty Cameras
Summary: More than anything, she wanted that family, the one that was caring and loving, that perfect family. She didn't realize she was ever going to get it, until Seth Cohen came along.


A/N-So this is basically something I came up with the other day. I kind of wanted to write a happy Seth/Summer thing (considering my other stories don't exactly have that at this moment) and this came out of it. The ending isn't the best ending in the world but I think it's okay for this. Oh and just a little thing about this, in the first part they're 14ish and then in the second they're around 26. Okay, now that I've rambled slightly, I'm just going to say thanks to Meg for proofreading this for me.

* * *

Summer watched as the happy couple danced the night away. She had to turn her head away when they kissed, to disgusted to watch. They were practically full on making out. Hello, she was the teenager. 

She turned her back away from her father and the woman he had married just several hours before (who Summer had ever so affectionately nicknamed "The Stepmonster"). She couldn't handle this. It was just too much to take in.

Ever since the engagement was announced, she had been dreading this day. Throughout those six months when the house was filled with talk of dresses, flower arrangements, and so on, she hated her father for ever asking that dreadful woman to marry him. She especially hated him the day that Summer was taken to get fitted for her dress. It turned out that the awful taste of this wretched woman happened to extend to these dresses. They were a Southern belle style (complete with puffy skirt) based, apparently on Gone With the Wind (it took Summer a minute to realize that she was talking about the movie, not the book, which caused some confusion as to the fact that The Stepmonster could actually do something other then Cardio Bar. Good thing she was mistaken), in a wonderful shade of Pepto Bismol pink (Summer found herself questioning why someone in their right mind would make a dress in this color). All in all, it was the single ugliest dress she had ever laid eyes on.

And she had to wear it. In front of, like, all of Newport. When she had expressed this to her father, he had just blown her off. It made her happy, he had said.

Well, Summer wasn't happy to be looking like something that people took when they had diarrhea. And the fact that people would actually see her in it. Ew.

She hated this day, this dress, everything. She turned her head to get a glimpse of everyone. Her father was smiling brightly, happier than he had been in a while.

Summer felt slightly guilty for the feelings that she had after seeing her dad. Sure, she hated the woman that he married, but after all, she did make him happy (she still asked herself how this was possible everyday and had yet to come up with a good answer). So...maybe it was a good thing. Since her mom left them, he had been lonely.

She would never like her though. Never. That would be asking way to much of her. She hated her. Though the only good part of having her around now was that her dad was going to start working nights and going away on business trips (one time he left her alone and had some people over and he stopped going away) and was now leaving her alone with The Stepmonster. Who, the majority of the time, seemed to be taking her 'happy pills' as her dad called them and was out of it.

Summer looked back at the dance floor. There was her father, Julie and Jimmy Cooper, Marissa and Luke, and multiple other couples dancing. She wished she was up there, dancing too but no one had asked her to (except for her cousin Lyle who smelled like week old cheese and had an obsession with grabbing her butt while they were dancing). She didn't really blame anyone because who wanted to be seen with a girl in a dress like hers?

She heard footsteps approaching her and wondered who could possibly be coming over to talk to her. She turned and saw a tall, skinny kid. Who was this kid? She knew his name started with an 'S'...Stanley? Sid? Steven? She couldn't remember his name.

"Um...Summer?" he tapped her on the shoulder.

She gave him a look of acknowledgement. He hesitated before continuing.

"Well, I'm Seth Cohen, just in case you don't remember me. I sit next to you in English class?" So this was the freaky kid who was always staring at her in class. Well, this was certainly interesting...and a little weird and only slightly creepy. "I just wanted to tell you that I think you look really beautiful in that dress, though it is a little eccentric if you ask me and was probably more popular in the 1800s, but it looks nice on you. Though you look really nice in everything, I think. So I just wanted to say that. And I was also wondering if maybe you wanted to-"

His question was cut off by Luke, Marissa, and a few others coming over to the table. Luke hit Seth on the arm and Summer could tell that it had been a hard punch, considering the wince Seth had.

"Hey queer. Why don't you go and hang out with the other queers?"

"Oh, Luke, that was very original," Seth commented. "I commend you on your ability to actually come up with new material."

Summer couldn't help it, she let out a small laugh. It was true that Luke called basically everyone a queer. He was a little lacking on his insults.

Everyone looked at Summer who covered it up with a large fake coughing fit. Seth just smiled at her, before turning and leaving before Luke could do more harm to him.

Summer watched him walk away as her friends sat down at the table and started talking and joking about her dress. She would have joined in with them, but what Seth just said stuck with her. No one had yet to tell her that, not any of her family, not her friends. No some random guy she never talks to and makes fun of instead told her so.

She watched him as he walked over to his mom and dad. He obviously was close with them, she could tell by the way they were talking. They looked just like the perfect family.

She found herself suddenly envious of this boy who had been so nice to her. He had what she wanted, something she had never admitted to anyone. A perfect family. Not a family that was broken by a mother leaving. Not a family who had a father married to a woman who was usually on drugs and who didn't even acknowledge the daughter. Not a family with the teenaged daughter feeling so lost from the lack of comfort and love in her family. They had the perfect family.

She loved her dad, she really did. She just craved that family that Seth Cohen had. She wanted it so badly. The worst thing was she didn't ever think that she was going to get it.

* * *

Once again she was at her father's wedding. Once again she was wearing a Pepto Bismol pink dress (this one had the added bonus of sparkles.) Once again she was witnessing her father marry a woman who was better off just left alone with her happy pills.

Today, though, Summer didn't mind. This time, she had a family of her own. Her father and his new wife weren't her family anymore.

Seth Cohen was her family.

There was such a difference in this wedding. This time she was actually dancing (cousin Lyle came to find her but backed off when he saw the wedding ring on her finger) and having fun. With Seth of course.

She leaned her head against his chest as they danced once again. She felt Seth kiss the top of her head gently.

"Are you tired Summer? Do you want to go and sit down, put your feet up for a few minutes?" Seth asked, his voice full of concern that Summer always thought was adorable but she would never say that to Seth.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just enjoying being here with you right now," she replied.

"Well, just tell me if you want to sit down."

"I want to keep dancing with you."

She pulled away from him slightly to look at Seth's face. He was smiling at her and she returned the smile.

"Did I tell you that you looked beautiful today?"

"Only like fifty times," Summer said. She didn't mind hearing it over and over again.

"Well, you really do look beautiful. That dress, while I realize all the other bridesmaids are wearing it, looks the best on you. You definitely look hot. Though...you look great in anything...especially nothing."

"Cohen! Don't say things like that when my dad is nearby!"

'We've been married for a year. And unless your dad doesn't know how babies are made, then he has to know that we did something. I mean you are pregnant...Cohen."

Summer groaned. "These are the moments I regret changing my last name to Cohen."

"Admit it, you love being called Cohen," Seth said. "Just as much as you love me.

Summer just smiled and rolled her eyes at him. She didn't particularly love being called Cohen, that was something she definitely could have done without. She loved being a Cohen though.

She sometimes wondered where she would have been if Seth Cohen hadn't come into her life. Would she had gotten the family that she had always wanted to have? She didn't like to think about that too much, considering she had gotten what she wanted and even more. She had gotten Seth Cohen. Despite what everyone had always-and still did say-about them and their relationship, in her eyes it was perfect. He was her family and nothing was ever going to change that.


End file.
